I started my new job on Tuesday, and this time I find myself in front of an Avid Media Composer. And what’s REALLY cool about it, is that it is the lastest version of Media Composer. When I interviewed I asked what version they were running, and they said MC Adrenaline version 2.7.7. That’s pretty old, but a fine version. But when I got the job, I asked them if they would be willing and able to upgrade to Media Composer 4.0. My main reasons are that they shot everything on Panasonic P2, and P2 support on MC 4.0 is much better than 2.7.7. Plus we will be needing to add some stock footage, and to be able to take advantage of Avid’s Mix and Match would be a real time saver. And other enhancements like SELECT ALL RIGHT or LEFT and transition preservation, it would be a real timesaver and a benefit to me and the production.

Apparently I did a good job of selling this, because before I started, they updated the system. I cannot tell you how happy that made me. Oh, but that’s not the point of this blog post, so I’ll move on.

While I am taking these first couple days to familiarize myself with the footage, I find myself resorting to an old practice I had of making select reels. This isn’t uncommon, this is a standard practice for Avid editors. What I do is when I run across some good footage, I add it to a sequence. This sequence is a select reel. I do this for each scene, or location, or interview. I have a bin called SELECT REELS in which I store these, and I will often refer to them.

I can then load this sequence into the PREVIEW monitor (Viewer for all you FCP folks) and scan through it for footage when I cut, and when I cut them into the sequence, they bring over the original clips. There is even a toggle on the bottom of the timeline that will toggle between the timeline in the Preview Monitor, and the main sequence. Very handy to have.

Now, you can do this in FCP too, but the default way FCP does this is to NEST the footage from the Viewer to the timeline. VERY odd behavior, and something I don’t want. I get past this by mapping OVERWRITE WITH CONTENT to F12, and INSERT WITH CONTEST to F11. Then the behavior mimics what the Avid does. But FCP doesn’t have a way to toggle between the sequence in Viewer…which is why in FCP I tend to COPY/PASTE from one sequence to another, because I can have more than one sequence open at a time.

That’s my Avid MC tip of the day. I’ll see if I can come up with more while I edit…perhaps this will help people just learning Avid. I might not get to one tip a day, but I’ll try my best. Maybe a tip of the week? Because some things are so second nature, I might not recognize it as a cool tip.

Comments

Thanks for the tips. I’m interested in Avid but have no experience with it. I do use FCP quite a bit.

I worked a short time with an editor who became upset with me because I kept asking him why he was doing what he was doing the way he was doing it. I think part of the reason he was upset was because he no longer knew why he did it that way. I’m sure there was a good reason for it at one time, but the technology had changed and he had not re-evaluated his original reasoning.

And what he was doing worked for him, so perhaps there was no reason for him to think about it. But his conclusion was that I didn’t respect him because I didn’t just do as I was told. I did respect him, and still do, but my way of learning seems to be to challenge assumptions before they get ingrained in me and I forget what they are. (By the way, he was working on my project, but I was quite new to editing.)

I guess I’m going a long way to explain that, I respect you as a working professional with far more experience than I have … even if I may challenge some of your assumptions below. Peace.

What is the advantage of a select reel over a select bin? The bin gives you random access while the reel implies serial access (although if the preview monitor is like the FCP viewer, you can click anywhere in the mini timeline at the bottom).

You said that you can, “toggle between the timeline in the Preview Monitor, and the main sequence”. What is the “main sequence”? In FCP terms that would be the sequence displayed in the Canvas, right?

I’m confused by the statement, “the default way FCP does this is to NEST the footage from the Viewer to the timeline”. It sounds like you’re nesting the whole select reel sequence into your working timeline. Do you set an in and out point on the select reel before the insert?

I’ve never tried that in FCP but the default behavior you describe seems logical to me, not having used the select reel paradigm. My logic is, if you’re looking at a sequence in the Viewer and you insert the contents of the viewer into a timeline sequence then I would expect FCP to insert the sequence in the viewer into the timeline, not the contents. As you pointed out, they give you an alternative.

So I guess I wouldn’t call it odd behavior, just different from the Avid default behavior.

Thanks again. I love reading your blog.

Peace, Love, Laughter,

Rob:-]

Nick

March 18th, 2010 at 9:52 AM

Every time I go from a job on Avid to a job on FCP the one thing I miss the most is the ability to toggle the timeline from my ‘record’ monitor to my ’source’ monitor. I’ve mapped the switch onto my keyboard and even get used to switching to source when I’m scrubbing through a long clip, simply because it gives me a nice long stretch of timeline to scrub through with my mouse.

When picking select shots, without worrying too much about sound bytes, I will almost always create a selects reel (for montages or just a good selection of GV’s to chose from). Anything that has significant audio for the story gets a sub clip of its own. Just the way I like to work it

Darryl

March 18th, 2010 at 9:52 AM

Hey Shane. Yes that’s a great tip. I have the exact same workflow as you. Going from my last editing gig on avid to fcp I found it a bit cumbersome in fcp. But it all worked out. I wish fcp would implement the toggle source/record timeline. I love your blog.. btw. Very informative. Keep it going. Good luck with your new job.

Sandra M

March 18th, 2010 at 8:07 PM

You can also combine this feature with the way that most of us make KEM rolls.

To make a normal KEM roll you would want all the clips to be free of marks, so the whole clip is in the sequence. This is how I prepare Dailies rolls for editors. If I, the Assistant Editor, I might do it differently. As I am checking sync and grouping clips, I might see something I like, so I mark it. I put a quick note in a custom bin field, and when I’m done with the scene, I pull those marked clips down in the sequence, and hey presto, a select reel!
(Then I clear all the marks, and make a normal dailies reel for anyone coming behind me).

AndrewK

March 19th, 2010 at 12:11 PM

Add me to the list of people as well that wishes you could toggle between a Canvas Timeline and a Viewer Timeline in FCP like you can in Avid. It sounds like just a little thing but it can come in so handy at times.

Rob,
Not to speak for Shane, but an advantage to a selects reel (which isn’t inherently serial because you can still jump around from point to point at will) is that you don’t have to keep loading individual clips into the Viewer/Preview window one at a time. For example, let’s say you have 20 shots of crowds that you’ve clipped out for b-roll. If you just have the clips in a bin you can only watch one clip at a time. If you string out all the clips into a sequence you just have thing to load and you can more quickly scrub through all the clips to find what you need.

W/regards to the ‘main sequence’ Shane was talking about… In FCP the timeline represents what’s going on w/the Canvas window (this is what Shane meant by ‘main sequence’), but in Avid you can toggle the Timeline to be associated w/either the Viewer or the Canvas window (to use FCP terms).

Andrew nailed all the points. Thanks. Busy trying to look at footage and see what I have, while cutting Act 1. Oh, and listening to music and trying to find the right tracks.

But yes, scrolling through a sequence is a LOT faster than loading clips. This is one of the things I hated about P2, they make a new clip with every start and stop. So scrolling can only be done while they are in a sequence.

And FCP defaults to nesting the footage when you load a sequence into the Viewer. So if you have 5 clips that you are adding, it will add them as ONE clip, and only refer to that nest. you can’t match back to the source file from that nest when it is in the timeline…it will only match frame to the nest…NOT THE CLIP! Oy. That is why it is good to map OVERWRITE WITH CONTENT to the keyboard, so that you avoid this NASTY behavior.

It’s common on a lot of shows I’ve worked on to have sequences for all tapeless media. It makes it so much faster to see what shots you have. Also, it makes it easier to log the footage and have interviews transcribed. If you create “reels” with tapeless media, you can use the TC of the sequence as opposed to the TC of the individual shots

Justin Barham

March 19th, 2010 at 6:37 PM

“Now, you can do this in FCP too, but the default way FCP does this is to NEST the footage from the Viewer to the timeline. VERY odd behavior, and something I don’t want. I get past this by mapping OVERWRITE WITH CONTENT to F12, and INSERT WITH CONTEST to F11. ”

Command-F9, Command-F10.

Darryl

July 15th, 2010 at 12:32 PM

Back to this thread. My current gig is working with group clips. The assistants have created them, cut the group clips into a sequence, let’s call it seq A) then synced the bwvs. This is avid BTW. I create a new seq then cut my selects into this new seq B). My question is, when I matchframe it takes me back to the group then to the master clips. I would like to be able to match frame back to the timeline that seq B) was cut from with the good audio. Would that not be a great feature avid could introduce…match back to timeline.

I know the assistants could have probably grouped the bwvs to these clips, too much work I guess.

Darryl

July 15th, 2010 at 12:32 PM

Back to this thread. My current gig is working with group clips. The assistants have created them, cut the group clips into a sequence, let’s call it seq A) then synced the bwvs. This is avid BTW. I create a new seq then cut my selects into this new seq B). My question is, when I matchframe it takes me back to the group then to the master clips. I would like to be able to match frame back to the timeline that seq B) was cut from with the good audio. Would that not be a great feature avid could introduce…match back to timeline.

I know the assistants could have probably grouped the bwvs to these clips, too much work I guess.